Staff shortages are now a national crisis

[Confusedofbritain]

Staff shortages across many sectors is now a national crisis surely? I’ve given up expecting anything of this government, but why isn’t Labour beating them with a stick over this?

Some examples which affect me personally….

• Can’t go on holiday due to cancelled flight, cause by lack of ground staff.
• I work for NHS trust and we have closed a ward due to c 50% vacancies. We have plenty of money but can’t spend it. Now competing with other trusts paying increasingly high golden handshakes.
• Tried to book restaurant for Tuesday birthday. Not possible as all places shut Monday and Tuesday due to short staff (esp chefs).
• Poor service when we do go out. Staff look frazzled.
• Can’t get a builder to do an extension. Often not bothering to quote. Builder friend can’t keep labourers and brickies. Paying increasingly high wages but getting poached.
• Window fitter quoted me 2x higher than 2019 (for a much smaller window!) probably because they’re so busy and can’t increase capacity due to lack of staff. So prices have gone up by 100%.
• Long delay in discharge for father from hospital, due to long waits for care package (caused by staff shortages). He was in hospital a lot longer than necessary and declined hugely as result.

It’s largely caused by Brexit, partly people retiring or changing livelihood during Covid…:.but why wasn’t this anticipated and what are we doing about it?

I want to see posters EVERYWHERE encouraging people to consider NHS careers. It’s a rewarding career, but impossible to cope and keep going with so few staff. We are escalating to NHS England constantly, saying we need a national solution. It’s beyond critical, but I’m not confident that there is a national drive to sort this out.

The economic and social consequences of ignoring this massive structural issue will be disastrous!

You are 100% right .
To be honest all this was predictable , but those of us calling if before brexit where called scaramoungers and negative people who just needed go Whitby’s and accept “ we want brexit at any cost “ .
well the custeis here and those of us who fought tooth and nail against brexit and I’ll all be affected and I will remember anyone who voted for this how much they are go blame for the test if my life !
the U.K. is a country in crisis , nit one single sector is not parking properly , from the home office to airports , to supermarkets and hospitals , every sector is in a massive crisis . It will only going to get worse

And those thinking it’s the same in the rest of Europe … open your eyes ! It’s not , yes some services are affected by Covid , Bitcoin can still do a passport and getting 3 days after ( from abroad ) , supermarkets are fully stoked and airports have shortages of staff but nothing even 10% of the U.K. .

We will get higher wages with too few people chasing too many jobs. This will lead to spiralling inflation, making those higher wages worth less.

This^ and the housing crisis.

if you live in leafy Surrey and are endlessly NIMBYing on about how houses can’t be built near you… frankly you deserve no social care staff.

It's many problems, Brexit being the main one.

Several people have asked for higher wages, but that will result in higher prices. I would agree to this - would you?

I'd also like to see a major overhaul of the Civil Service and Council processes, so they are more efficient and need less staff. These have grown hugely over the past few years and taken many people out of the 'productive' end of the economy.

@SpindleSheWrote hit the nail on the head. This is exactly why I am one of those people not currently working. I have a four month old baby and two older children.

My partner works shifts. This means I can’t work shifts. I’m a qualified and experienced TA but low wages mean there’s little point in me returning to work because of expensive childcare. I have considered going back to work this September. I am also a graduate and due to re start a pgce next sept.
I would also love to work for the NHS. I have considered it many times.However it seems impossible due to shift patterns, cost of childcare..ect

Funny that paying people 'earning' a lot more money than average, even more money, never seems to cause any problems isn't it? 🤔

Brexit is not yet done. More paperwork, more queues, more complications and more expenses lie ahead. The increase in the costs of fuel, queueing, admin and manpower hours is putting individual business owners off dealing with us.

The tendency of our PM to break laws, both domestic and international, means that countries aren't that keen to negotiate trade agreements with us.

We lack an available, skilled workforce. Even if every unemployed person was skilled and qualified enough to fill all of the job vacancies in the UK, we would still have a workforce shortage.

You do realise that most benefits are claimed by people in work don’t you?

I don’t think you can staff an acute care ward by dragging people from their homes who aren’t currently employed.

There are very few places at Uni each year to train for nursing & medicine. The government need to make more training available.

My son has been trying to change jobs for the past year or so but can’t get anything. Had loads of interviews with great feedback but no job offer ever forthcoming. He’s in retail & desperate to get out of customer facing job. Being spat at & threatened is beginning to irk him.

@PersonaNonGarter
I live in very leafy South Surrey and WE ARE having houses built here. 1,2 &3 bed flats have been built and are now having the finishing touches and landscaping. There looks to be about 60+ triple height apartments just in one small area which are a mix of affordable rental housing and some for sale.
Besides that, in the same area, houses are being built on small plots between older properties and empty offices being converted into rental and for sale residences. Woking in Surrey has a HUGE house and flat building programme going on. It's been 3 years since they got planning approval and they have been busy ever since. That's just a small snapshot of 2 places.
If we don't curb immigration there will be no green spaces left. Building on fields, concreting over driveways and losing the countryside has many knock on effects, your health, loss of wildlife and the reality of flooding due to no ground absorbsion are just 3.

You don't need a uni education to be a nurse. Nurses were better trained years ago as students in designated 'schools' for 3 months with one day a week at the hospital they were assigned to and where they would complete the 2, 3 or 4 year on the job training. They also had to spend 3 months each in geriatric, ENT, eye and children's hospitals during that time.

Immigrants are not responsible for houses being built in the SE @LoisLane66. They are necessary to our society.

They'll have to be housed somewhere, sometime. Are you all for unmanaged immigration? We have too many people here already. Maybe forcing people to sell their second and third homes would get some results, not that I agree with that idea. I still say that unlimited building on green belt areas or SSSI is a bad idea for the reasons I offered.

why oh why in a country of around 68 million people do we have a shortage of staff for any job, we have huge unemployment. we also should not need to rely on overseas workers to come and fill these vacancies, why can't this country focus more on training it's own citizens to fill these vacancies. young people particularly working class kids whilst still at school need more guidance into getting into certain careers/jobs. I have a teen still in high school who feels totally lost and no idea what they want to do upon leaving education as there is no guidance or help or advice for them into getting into certain careers and it feels so out of reach to them especially if they are from a poor background as its just not the done thing for a kid from a council estate to become a doctor, dentist, lawyer, vet. even if they are an extremely bright high acheiver as my dc is. I've seen equally bright kids just end up unemployed and on benefits or in low skilled jobs when they could be clearly capable of so much more but its not expected of them as they don't see people from their own background going on to do these jobs.

It's Brexit, let's face it. But also, in lower paying jobs, employers are being far too fussy. I have a son who is autistic. It took about 1 year of applying for pot washing jobs - and he has a level 3 in graphic design and art. I lost count of the number of times he did trial shifts only not to get the job. He has eventually got a job. The company he works for are thrilled with him because he is so hard working, doesn't spend time socialising and won't his shift until he has finished the job. The fact that he's pretty bad at interviews being autistic was never fully understood. I'm glad that he persisted but employers of lower paying jobs have to stop looking for the perfect candidate and choose from those that show potential.

@LoisLane66 Only 5% of the UK is built on.....

Bur then research suggests that mortality decreases if nurses are better educated www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nurse-staffing-education-linked-reduced-patient-mortality

What you're describing is still happening though- nurses spend some time at universal and have a block of different placement in the hospitals and community. Learning from experience and from evidence based research.

Employers need to do more to attract staff. Higher wages and better conditions. More flexibility, offering WFH where possible, part time hours. If they can't get people to agree to work zero hours contracts then they'll have to offer stable contracts.

This will be good for society in general i think, although there will be a period of adjustment.

There needs to be an improvement in the work environment. I have a friend who works in the NHS as a cleaner and they expect her to do the work of 3 they are so short staffed. They won’t get staff in and expect her to do it either single handedly or with another co worker. Everyone is fed up of working for so little money yet expected to do more. If employers paid better wages and employed more staff then many people would stay. I’m lots of jobs people are leaving as they are sick of how they are treated. We now have a much larger population that and plus after brexit so many people left the country. I don’t understand why employers don’t just advertise for more staff and treat them so well that they don’t leave. It’s all about money if it wasn’t they could have as many staff as they liked.

You don't need a uni education to be a nurse. Nurses were better trained years ago as students ...........

I get the impression that in the old days student nurses were rather used as cheap labour while they qualified. Now they have quite long blocks of time while qualifying whilst on placement.

I work in NHS too its shocking relying more on agency staff thr money they are paying them.thry could be using as an incentive to get regular staff and bank to do shifts , we are short of hcas and nurses , Also major shortage of Dentists in my area nhs no chance and even private, lost mine due to nor going through covid 111 no help just have to ring round yourself had to pay £175 and 2 hour round trip to an emergency one

We don't have 'huge unemployment' the rate is 3.7% and there are 1.3m vacancies. So more vacancies than people.

Honestly where do people get this nonsense from 🙄

There simply isn't the numbers of people in the UK able to do the jobs we require, millions have left the workforce because of Brexit and Covid.

To some extent doesn't matter how much the pay or conditions are, if one sector starts paying more, they are just taking workers from another sector....

Hence now calls to introduce a "Aviation Workers Visa" scheme.... talk about a total lack of planning :(

All of you who voted for Brexit have caused this.

I have a teen still in high school who feels totally lost and no idea what they want to do upon leaving education as there is no guidance or help or advice for them into getting into certain careers and it feels so out of reach to them especially if they are from a poor background as its just not the done thing for a kid from a council estate to become a doctor, dentist, lawyer, vet. even if they are an extremely bright high acheiver as my dc is

Why aren't you doing this then? either directly or by badgering the school?